As the world struggles to deal with the climate crisis, some companies are working to remove polluting carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. , but two US companies have recently made important progress.
Scientists say large amounts of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere and stored. . But there's so much CO2 in the atmosphere that just planting trees and protecting forests won't solve the problem. In addition, when plants and trees die, the carbon they've stored gets released again.
That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture (DAC). The science of removing carbon from the air is challenging, and it's still pretty new. Most DAC processes require a large amount of energy, .
A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. The company heats up the limestone (石灰?guī)r)to separate out the CO2, which is then locked away in concrete (混凝土). The process is extremely expensive. . That's a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere, but the company says it hopes to remove a billion tons per year by 2035.
. Some people worry that it will take too long for DAC technology to become powerful enough to make a difference. Others worry that focusing on removing carbon could take attention away from more important climate actions, like switching from fossil fuel s to renewable energy. But experts say the decision isn't to do one or the other. The world needs to end fossil fuel use and pull carbon out of the air.
A. It's a huge and challenging goal
B. Plants and trees can do this naturally
C. Everyone is not excited about carbon removal
D. The new plant can remove 1,000 tons of CO2 year
E. Graphyte is another US company working on DAC
F. and CO2 is just a small part of the gasses that make up air
G. so one puzzle for these companies is how to remove carbon without creating more pollution